so, i dont get it. i switched the output of foobar 1.1 beta 2 to 24 bit, used a HDCD (tool - lateralus) and check with utilities for HDCD, he detected for every song a HDCD track. but when i playback it nothing changes, and nothing stands in the console.

im trying right now with the "old" version of foobar and the old plugin to playback some tracks. it would be cool if there would be still a DSP plugin for foobar because it is also cool to have the actual 20 bit file on the drive IMO (for DAW or so, so you can burn e.g. a 24bit DVD so you can listen to it over realy good equipment if you dont have a HDCD player)

seeya

edit: worked with the old plugin in the old foobar now, will check if i receive full 20 bit files with a bitmeter

The ripped .wav or even encoded in .flac by EAC keeps the hdcd tag in least significant bit.For convenience I stock flac files only. So whenever I want to get the real 20-24 bit file (depends of original encoding anyways),I use eac3to which outputs me correct full 24 bit wavs, even if often the first 20 bits are used (4 bits empty as padding I guess).

I'll try to grab a copy of the said wav file decoded in more than 16 bits definition running in Wavelab 6 this evening with the bits window open

Steve Forte Rio said: And when it will be possible to decode HDCD from TAK source?kode54 answered: Once the interface is finalized, and the TAK decoder component is updated to use it.

Thanks for your bitter question, I've read the thread, but this is too long and I'm waiting for nice guys to show me directly.

I know TAK is not ready, that's why I put the Audio CD in the drive and test, and I'm quite surprise Foobar2000 v1.0.3 HDCD scan is nothing, then I upgraded to the latest v1.1 beta2 but still got nothing, then I tried rip from Foobar2000, and scan the WAV, still nothing ...

I left the PC alone and went out several hours, come back and test again, this time the scan result of Audio CD finally display the track was HDCD encoded, but ripped WAV still none ...

At last, I downloaded the latest EAC (I didn't use it for 2 years), and now I got the correct scan result, this proof that the Foobar2000's built-in ripping is NOT accurate.

Next question (sorry I really don't know), if I converted the HDCD WAV to FLAC or TAK with Foobar2000, will the HDCD content become decoded and I can use other players to play the converted FLAC with HDCD effect?

HDCD doesn't magically add bit precision. If, like the Tool - Lateralus album, none of the HDCD features are used, then the only result of passing it through a HDCD decoder will be a 6dB reduction in volume. The only way to actually increase the bit precision in any way is to use the peak extension feature, or the gain reduction feature. And even then, it's not perfect.

I suppose it should also be possible to apply a low pass filter to the least significant bit dithering, to somehow simulate higher bit depth, but that seems kind of silly.

Also, reminding everyone again since we're on a new page, this new version only works with foobar2000 version 1.1, beta 1 or newer.

the problem seems to be that the HDCD.exe thing thats everyone using does not seem to work for some albums, such as lateralus.

QUOTE

The problem is that Lateralus uses HDCD features we don't know about; they are hidden away in patents and proprietary software, and the guy who implemented hdcd.exe could only go off the two publicly released algorithms.

I modified the hdcd decoder a bit to collect some statistics, and also designed a simple console application which takes assumed stereo WAV files, skips the header, and parses only the left channel through the decoder, to detect present features. It had this to say:

47284 detected HDCD packet headers (01111100000111111000000b sequence output from LFSR, most significant bit first) and 47284 of those resulting in a status byte being read from the input data. The status byte has room for the gain level (low 4 bits, range 0-15 translating to 0.0 ... -7.5 dB) and four feature bits. Two of the feature bits are known, peak extension and transient filter. Only the peak extension feature is supported by the decoder disassembled from WMP. Although, as you can see from the output of my testing tool, no feature bits are used at all. From playing the album, you can see that -4.0 dB gain being applied to the first few HDCD packets, then it shifts up to 0.0 dB for the rest of the album.

I uploaded the tool source code here, so you may repeat the results yourself. If anyone cares, I could also add a proper WAV parser, but there's not much point since it already served its purpose.

47284 detected HDCD packet headers (01111100000111111000000b sequence output from LFSR, most significant bit first) and 47284 of those resulting in a status byte being read from the input data. The status byte has room for the gain level (low 4 bits, range 0-15 translating to 0.0 ... -7.5 dB) and four feature bits. Two of the feature bits are known, peak extension and transient filter. Only the peak extension feature is supported by the decoder disassembled from WMP. Although, as you can see from the output of my testing tool, no feature bits are used at all. From playing the album, you can see that -4.0 dB gain being applied to the first few HDCD packets, then it shifts up to 0.0 dB for the rest of the album.

Only gain and peak extension are applied. Transient filter is not supported, as there is no reference software to base the filter on. Besides which, the transient filter is really only useful if you're also upsampling the output to 88200Hz, or at least so I've heard.

Hey Guys, Esp. Kode, I have been keeping up with THIS Forum since before the 1.5 update.I happen to have a ton of Flac encoded HdCd's mostly Grateful Dead. At first i was lost as the update didnot write anything in the Console. using This:

I get it to display just fine. I too use EAC. for most of my rips...but...If I want to use Foobar to rip HDCD's I must either remove the component or manually name to foo_hdcd.dll.OFF....Is there not a way to use a switch that then can be made into a button or am I asking to much... I have only been using Foobar for 6 months...I still use Media Monkey to sort my music after it is ripped...But i am loving this foobar much...I have learned alot by downloading other peoples setups ,taking them apart piece by piece...Thats how I got into reading and writing CODE Foobar is soooooo customizable..I just thought there may be a way to make a switch..maybe for 1.6????Thanks for having me in this great community Peace,Jimmanningjr